Air pump



1957- s. L. FRIEDLANDER 2,812,525

AIR PUMP 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed May 4, 1956 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY.

Nov. 12, 1957 s. L. FRIEDLANDER 2,812,525

AIR PUMP 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed May 4. 1956 INVENTaR SIDNEY L-fk/EDLHNDEK Arnie/v57.

United States Patent PUMP Sidney L. 'Friedlandier, Van Nuys, Calif assig'nor to Davis Products Inc., Santa Monica, Calif., a corporation of California Application May 4,1956, Seria-l lio.;582,693

2 Claims. or. 5*-3'4'-s) This invention relates to a novel pump comprising a Inflatable air mattresses to support the human body, for example, inflatable mattresses of the type placed on and particularly swimming pools as a raft or float for recreational purposes, are commonly inflated by mechanical air pumps such as a bicycle pump. However, such pumps are relatively expensive and are bulky to carry about particularly when traveling.

A particular object of this invention is to provide an inexpensive pump for readily inflating an inflatable air chamber, especially an inflatable air mattress, which pump possesses the additional advantages of having minimum bulkiness and being lightweight.

This and other objects of the invention are accomplished by the pump of my invention which comprisesa flexible, prefer-ably plastic, inflatable bag substantially impervious to passage of air through its walls, the bag having an opening at one end, and a hollow fitting for passage of air outwardly from the interior of the bag,

said fitting being connected to the wall of the bag at a substantial distance from the, opening'therein, preferably adjacent or near the bottom of the bag. The fitting passage therein, although fittings of an equivalent nature can be employed. An aperture is formed in the wall of the bag at a substantial distance from the opening therein and adjacent the fitting, said aperture communiicating with the air passage in the fitting or disc. The fitting is adapted: to be connected to or mounted upon an air valve of a member to be inflated, so that air passes from the fitting through said valve and into said member. If desired, a stiffening member such as a loop of wire ean be connected to theedge of the bag at the open end thereof to support the bag in open position.

When employed incombination with an inflatable air 'mattress for inflating the same, thefitting or disc of the 'flex-ible bag is snugly fitted over the air valve of the inflatable mattress With the stem of the airvalve passing bag through the aperture therein and the fitting, both located preferablyn'ear' 'tliebot'toin of. the bag, enoug said valve-andinto the inflatahle mattress to inflate it.

- As th e pressure ofthe air in the bagdecreases, theupper portion of the bag is further folded over upon'ifself to again decrease the bag volume while force is continued to be applied to the bag, causing more of the air therein to be conducted into the air mattress. This procedure is flexible inflatable chamber or has onstrueted to permit f the forcing of air by hand from said bag into another inflatable member or chamber. 7

--the ground for sleeping or rest purposes, or used in water can conveniently be in the forin ofa disc having an air 2,812,525 Patented Nov. 12,1957

continued until essentially all of the air has been expelled from the bag. I

The invention will be more clearly understood from the following description of certain embodiments of the invention, taken in connection with the accompanying Fig. 5 shows a fragmentary view of a modified form of bag-type pump, shown in combination with an inflatable mattress;

Fig. 6 shows another modification of the invention; V Fig. 7 showsa bottom plan view of the device of Fig. .6, takeno'n line 7-7 of Fig. 6;

Fig. S'ShOWS a front elevation in perspective of another modification of the invention;

Fig. 9 is a; vertical section through the bag of Fig. 8, with the upper edges of the bag folded over; and

Figs. 10 and 11 illustrate steps in the operation of the pump of the invention.

Referring to Figs. 1 to 4 of the drawing, numeral 20 represents a flexible inflatable bag, one end of which is open at 22, the closed end being sealed as at 21. Bag 20 is formed of any plastic material, either of a thermosetting or thermoplastic type, preferably the latter, which has sufficient flexibility when formed into a bag, so that it can be readily folded or unfolded, yet has sufficient strength to" resist rupture when the bag is closed and force is applied thereto to expel the entrapped air as described more fully below. The material forming the bag may or may not be stretch-able. Thus, for example, bag 20 may be made from polyethylene or vinyl plastic, rubberized canvas, nylon, plastic-coated flexible materials, a dense weave textile which is essentially impervious to air, and the like. I preferably employ polyethylene for this purpose." Thebag is preferably elongated to facilitate folding and to capture a sufliciently large volume of air, as described below.

Near the bottom of the bag is provided an aperture 24, andover the aperture is positioned a plastic disc 26 Preferably having a thickened central portion 27, said disc having a central opening or air passage 28 therein. The disc 26 is placed so that its airpassage 28 is in alignment with the aperture 24 in the bag. Hence the interior of the bag 20 is in communication with said air passage 28' viaiaperture 24. The disc 26 is connected to the outside surface of the flexible bag 20 by means of an annular or doughnut shaped piece of plastic tape 30, having a central opening 31, leaving the outer end of passage 28 ofthe disc uncovered. The aperture 24 in the bag is conveniently made with a greater diameter than the air passage 28 to facilitate alignment of said fitting can have an outer shape other than circular, for

example octagonal, square or ellipical, and the fitting can be attached to the bag by means such as stapling,

the operative, and to provide a member to which the'valve of the object to be inflated can be attached and which will support said valve during the pumping operation so asto afford a substantially air tight connection between said valve and the aperture in the bag, and prevent leakage of air out of the bag to the atmosphere. l

In employing bag structure 20 as an air pumpaccording to the invention, for inflating an inflatable mattress indicated by numeral 32, the bag 20 is first unfolded and the valve stem 34 of the valve 36, which is provided in an end portion 38 of the air mattress, is inserted through the air passage 28 of the disc 26 and the aligned aperture 24 of the bag, the end of the stem protruding into the bottom of the bag, although it need not 'nec essarily protrude into the interior of the bag. The thickened central portion 27 of the disc serves to support the valve in position in the air passage of the disc. The particular type of inflatable mattress 32 illustrated in Figs. 1 and 5 is described and claimed in my copending application Serial No. 582,807, filed of even date herewith. It will ofcourse be understood, however, that the pump described herein can be used to inflate air mattresses of a type other than that of my aforementioned copending application, or to inflate any'other member whichit is desired to inflate and having a suitable valve for cooperation with the fitting of my pump.

After the disc 26 has been properly positioned tightly over the valve 36 to prevent air leakage between" the air passage 28 of the disc and the outside of valve. stem 34, one inserts both hands into the bag 20, as illustrated in Fig. 10, to spread the inflatable bag as much as possible. The upper edges 40 of the bag at the open end 22 thereof, are then quickly grasped and folded together tightly as illustrated in Fig. 1], closing the bag opening and creating an air pocket therein and trapping the air within the bag. Pressure is then applied to the top of the bag by pushing down on the bag, forcing air through aperture 24, air passage 28 and valve 36, into the inflatable mattress 32. As the pressure in the bag decreases, the upper portion of the bag is further folded downwardly, decreasing the volume thereof, and additional force is ap plied to the top of the bag to force more air from the bag into mattress 32. This is repeated until substantially all of the air in the bag has been removed and the bag is substantially deflated. The bag is then opened, again filled with air and the above procedure repeated until mattress 32 is inflated to the desired degree.

Referring to Fig. 5, there is illustrated a modified form of bag 41, the bottom portion of which is indicated by numeral 42, the opposite end of the bag (not shown) being open as at 22 in Fig. 1. The bottom of the bag 42 is also open at 44, and to the bottom open end 44 of this bag is connected a rigid base member 46, made of plastic or any other suitable material such as wood. An aperture 48 is provided in base member 46 and into this aperture is positioned a fitting 50 having a depending hollow sleeve 52. Fitting 50 has a lip 54 at its upper end, and this lip rests on base member 46, and is affixed thereto by fastening means e. g., in the form of a spring pressed keeper 56. The valve stem 34 of valve 36, atfixed to end portion 38 of mattress 32, passes, into the bore 58 of sleeve 52 and fits tightly therein. Air forced out of bag 41 in the manner described above, passes through the bore 58 of fitting 50, through valve 36 and into mattress 32 for inflating it.

In Figs. 6 and 7 is shown another bag modification in which the bottom 62 of the elongated flexible bag 60 is closed, but carries a rigid member 64 cemented or otherwise connected to the bag, the bag being open at its upper end 66. The member 64 has an aperture 68 therein and the bag bottom 62 has an aperture 70 in alignment with aperture 68. The valve 72 of an inflatable chamber 74 is inserted through apertures 68 and 70, and the bag 60 is manipulated in the manner described above to force air from said bag into said inflatable chamber 74.

In Figs. 8 and 9 are shown still another modification. Here the inflatable flexible bag 76 is similar to that of Figs. 1 and 2, except that there is connected about the edges at the open end 78 of the bag a wire frame or loop 80 acting as a stiffening member to support the bag in its open position. The use of such a frame also facilitates downward folding of the upper portion of the bag (see Fig. 9) during the process of forcing the air out of the bag as described in detail above. The bag 76 has a flexible hollow fitting 82 near the bottom thereof, similar to the apertured disc 26, for mating with a valve of an inflatable member and serving to conduct the air out of bag 76 into said inflatable member. In place of the wire frame 80, I can employ other means such as a solid wooden frame similar to member 64, said frame preferably having a plurality of holes therein. The latter frame can be attached to the upper end of the bag to close it, the holes in the frame permitting passage of air into the bag. Such frame also facilitates folding of the bag during use and while forcing air out of the bag, in a manner similar to that illustrated in connection with the wire frame 80 in Fig. 9.

From the foregoing, it is seen that I have provided a highly simplified, inexpensive type of air pump, assentially in the form of an inflatable bag or chamber impervious to passage of air through its wall, and which when not in use can be folded up to occupy but a small space, and has very little Weight. The pump of this invention is particularly useful for inflating air mattresses, and requires only a modest amount of manual energy to operate.

While I have described a particular embodiment of my invention for the purpose of illustration, it should be understood that various modifications and adaptations thereof may be made within the spirit of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An air pumping device adapted to cooperate with a protruding male valve on an inflatable article, comprising an open-ended bag of thin flexible sheet material, a small aperture in said bag remote from said open end, said bag being otherwise sealed and substantially impervious to the passage of air therethrough, a substantially flat, disc-like, resilient reinforcing and stiffening member sealed on said bag over the area of said aperture, said member having an aperture therethrough overlying said first mentioned aperture, said apertures being adapted to receive the valve stem of said valve therethrough, and said member having a surface conformation surrounding its aperture adapted to bear against the valve support and sealingly to engage therewith under pressure, said member and apertures thereby forming a female socket for sealing engagement with said male valve. l

2. A device as set forth in claim 1, wherein said surface conformation of said member includes an annular projecting ridge surrounding the aperture in said member and is adapted to receive therewithin said valve support to facilitate the sealing engagement between said member and said valve.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNlTED STATES PATENTS 2,372,218 Manson et al May 27, 1945 2,423,890 Hurt July 15, 1947 2,639,750 Phane May 26, 1953 2,686,006 Hasselquist Aug. 10, 1954 2,701,579 Hasselquist Feb. 8, 1955 2,753,573 Barker July 10, 1956 

